


When Home is a Person, Not a Place

by keyboardclicks



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Sibling Bonding, everyone else is secondary, the twins are the most important people to each other, they love their boyfriends but Sorry they need Twin Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 07:19:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14666103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keyboardclicks/pseuds/keyboardclicks
Summary: Lup is once again a corporeal being and that fact alone is enough to bring Taako to tears.





	When Home is a Person, Not a Place

They didn’t leave each other’s sides for over a week after Lup got her body back.

After she had finished thoroughly smooching Barry’s brains out, her first words were, “Damn.  I forgot how nice that felt!” Quickly followed by, “I have to go see Taako!”

Barry understood.  Of course he did; he had spent 100 years around Taako and Lup and he knew how they Worked.  But apparently a flash of disappointment still crossed his face, which Lup quickly rectified by stroking his cheek.

“Babe, you know I love you more than life and undeath itself, and trust me when I say that I missed you so fucking much while I was trapped inside that stupid umbrella.  But Taako is my other half. If you wanna get scientific about it, we were at one point  _ literally  _ the same person.”  This was long before actually being born but the point stood.  “So I’m gonna go cuddle the shit out of my brother for a while because if I don’t I think I’ll die again, and that would be a waste of all those months you spent growing me my beautiful new bod.” 

Barry nodded feverishly.  Kravitz, who was there for work purposes and had just awkwardly been standing in a corner for the past few minutes while the two of them had made out, jerked his head towards Lup when she called, “Hey, Boneman!  Take me to my brother, pronto!”

In Taako’s apartment, a stack of books the elf had been levitating from one room to another clattered to the ground the moment he saw Lup.  Without one word they rushed to each other and were wrapped in the tightest hug either of them could ever remember, sinking to their knees, then to the floor and leaning against the back of the sofa.  Kravitz and Barry saw Taako’s fingers digging into the back of Lup’s shoulders where he clutched her for dear life. His face was pressed into her shoulder and they were both shaking.

Barry said what Kravitz was thinking; “We should leave them alone.”

The twins didn’t notice them leave; it was possible that Taako hadn’t even noticed them appear.  They held on so tight and for so long that each could feel the other’s heartbeat under their skin, a constant reminder of life, of presence.

 

Lup stayed with Taako for a while after that.  When Merle and Magnus came to visit one morning they found them making breakfast together in the kitchen, speaking in Elvish.  When Barry came by they were tangled up on the couch, Lup’s back against Taako’s chest while they read from the same book. When Kravitz decided to check on them he found them in a similar state, cuddled up against one another while they slept on Taako’s bed.

If they sat down, they were touching.  If they stood, they were holding hands or locking elbows or slinging arms over each other’s shoulders.  If they went out it was together and if they stayed in they were never out of each other’s line of sight for more than a minute.  (Except to go to the fantasy toilet, because everyone’s got needs and not even twins want to see that if they don’t have to.)

“Have they always been like this?” Kravitz asked Barry one day.  The two of them were supposed to start their service under the Raven Queen soon, and he was worried that Lup wouldn’t want to leave her brother’s side, or that Taako wouldn’t let her.  Barry shrugged.

“Not to this extent, but yeah, more or less.  I mean, it’s not like they  _ always  _ went  _ everywhere  _ with each other, but they’re a little joined at the hip.  I think being together is part of how they kind of… recharge?  If that makes sense? Like they love being around other people but hanging out with each other is like their version of alone time.  After being apart for so long I bet they’re both drained and just need that comfort, I think.” He scratched the back of his neck, and it was reassuring to Kravitz that even someone who had known them for so long wasn’t  _ completely _ sure how they Worked.  “I mean, sure Lup was in that umbrella with him for a while, but it’s not the same as actually being with her.”

Kravitz nodded.  It was strange, but seeing Taako so openly affectionate with someone other than him came as a great relief.  He knew now that Taako cared deeply for all members of the IPRE, even if he didn’t show it; that Magnus and Merle and Barry really were his best friends, that he respected Davenport a great deal, and that despite being unspeakably angry with Lucretia he would quickly and fiercely defend her against danger.  But to see someone else whom guarded and nonchalant Taako would so easily embrace was comforting to Kravitz; it let him know that, even when he couldn’t be there, the love of his undeath had somebody to turn to. “I’ve never seen two people who are so close before.”

Barry had to laugh at that.  “Yeah, I don’t think any of us have.”

 

To Taako, Lup having her body back was about more than just being able to hug his sister again.  It was more than holding her hand and yanking her hair and cuddling when they slept, more than any and all of those things combined.  It was an indescribable feeling of peace that washed over him every moment they were together, the feeling of being home. For twelve years Taako had struggled to understand a feeling of loneliness that struck his heart like pain in a phantom limb.  Even when he was on the road, even when he had Sazed, even when he had Merle and Magnus, even when he had Kravitz, it was as if there was a hole that dug straight through him from one side to the other. It was cold and consuming and made his stomach ache, but for the love of all the gods he couldn’t figure out  _ why. _

And then he remembered Lup, his other half, his  _ heart _ .  He remembered that she had disappeared and he was empty, then wanting for something he didn’t even remember existed.  

It had left him so constantly _ exhausted _ .

But she was here, now.  Not only as a formless, incorporeal lich but as herself, beautiful and warm and breathing and  _ alive. _  (Yes, he knew she was technically undead but she was in a living body with a beating heart and so in Taako’s book she was alive.)  

“Don’t you ever fucking leave me like that again,” he said to her.  “I swear, Lup, if you ever pull something like that again I will make another grand relic just to  _ find you. _  That will be its literal only purpose, to tell me where the  _ fuck _ you are.”

“Bit too late for that now, babe,” she laughed.  Taako’s arm was thrown across her shoulders as they sat flush against each other on the floor, both greedily eating from a carton of ice cream.  “Light of Creation is kinda unavailable at the moment, and I doubt it’s taking messages.”

“Taako gives zero fucks,” he pronounced, shoveling another spoonful of rocky road into his mouth.  “I will find a way, you feel me? I am the best transmutation wizard in this and every other planar system and I will  _ find a way. _ ”

Lup nudged his side, then lay her head on his shoulder.  “Yeah, bro. I feel you.”

 

They were all sorts of on top of each other when they slept.  Taako’s arm flung across her back, Lup’s hair in his face, a tangle of two bodies so familiar with each other that personal space was a completely irrelevant concept.  They had grown up like this; smooshed together, given one bed when they deserved two, and by the time they were on the Starblaster the concept of each having their own bedroom was a new and strange luxury.  

They slept best in each other’s presence.  

Taako never had night terrors.

 

“Do you think we’ll ever talk about… all this?” Lup asked one afternoon.  They were back to back, leaning against each other while painting their nails. 

“Yeah… but not right now,” Taako replied.  “Don’t wanna harsh the mood, ya know? I’m just happy you have your body back; don’t really wanna ruin it.”  The bright red polish leaked into his cuticle and Taako cursed. “You spent twelve years trapped in an umbrella, and I spent twelve years not knowing you existed.  It fucking sucked on both ends, and I don’t really feel like dredging all that shit up right now.”

Lup nodded.  “Yeah, that’s fair.  I do gotta say one thing, though.”

Taako shifted his head in a way that indicated he was listening.  “Hit me, kimosabe.”

She twisted the brush back into its bottle of deep blue polish, waving her hand up and down to speed up the drying process without burning a spell slot she could instead use to grab something far away when she inevitably didn’t feel like getting up.  “So like, while I was stuck in there, I couldn’t really  _ see  _ much, right?  But I could  _ hear _ a lot.  The more conscious I was and the more I meditated, especially.  I could hear you and Magnus and Merle in the cave, and on the train, and in that race which,  _ by the way,  _ sounded fucking sweet and I wish I could have like actually been there.  Promise you’ll take me to a battle wagon race sometime because that is some shit I have  _ got  _ to get in on.”

“Yeah, sure.  Apparently Hurley and Sloane are like, tree gods now or something and they still race.  Maybe they’ll let you be their third.”

“Oh  _ hell yeah _ .”  He could absolutely hear her grin, and the image of Lup fireballing away her competition was suddenly very present in his mind.  “But anyway, like I was saying…”

A bony elbow suddenly pressed against Taako’s waist, breaking his concentration in getting the fucking polish out of his fucking cuticle.

“I had to listen to you and Skull Rider boning  _ so many times _ , so I  _ never  _ wanna hear shit from you about me’n Barry  _ ever again _ , you hear me?  The only thing that grossed me out more was hearing about Merle and his stupid plant fetish.”

A loud, snorting, very un-Taako-like laugh sounded from that very elf, who curled in on himself with the force of his elation.  Lup leaned backwards and pressed her weight down on her brother’s back.

“Oh it’s funny, huh?  Maybe I should leave me and Barry’s stones of farspeech on the next time he and hook up!  You’d be surprised to hear what a dirty mind he has.”

Taako gagged dramatically through his laughter.  “Dis _ gusting!   _ At least I didn’t  _ know  _ you were there, you weirdo!”

She pressed down on him harder.  “All I’m saying is that I had to put with hearing  _ so much shit _ over the past couple of years the  _ least  _ you could do is apologize.  I’m happy that Mr. Tall Dead And Sexy dicks you down so good but I did  _ not  _ need to know that my brother is such a screamer.”

“ _ Gross! _ ”  But he was laughing.  They both were.

 

Lup was the one to point out that they needed a good night of meditation instead of sleep.  Taako couldn’t recall the last time he’d successfully meditated; it was probably back at the beginning of Cycle 99, before Lucretia had taken violent liberties with their minds.  Attempts in recent years had been fraught with an unhappy and confused inner mind that screamed out with pain and loneliness it was unable to identify. So he’d given up, and although Taako certainly loved sleep (when it didn’t end with him screaming his lungs out because his stupid brain didn’t know how to chill the fuck out), it just wasn’t as effective without the occasional round of meditation to really give him a full charge.

Lup, on the other hand, had become  _ really fucking good  _ at meditation.  (“There was literally nothing else to do inside that damn umbrella, so if I wasn’t good after twelve years I’d demand a refund.  Now come on, dingus, you’re exhausted.”)

It was with surprising ease, then, that Taako felt himself slipping away.  He relaxed his body and thought only of breathing in and out until his mind lapsed into peaceful thoughts of nothing.  Nothing, and the way his and Lup’s knees brushed together.

 

“Throw me those black heels with the white roses on them.”

“Why can’t you wear one of the twelve pairs of shoes we just bought you in Neverwinter?”

“Because these ones go with my dress the best and I want to wear them.  Besides, you’re wearing my top.”

Taako shrugged and adjusted the white ruffled sleeves of the shirt.  “It goes with the skirt.”

One of the many benefits of having an identical twin was the ability to raid each another’s wardrobes and know that, more or less, everything would fit.  It was an added bonus that they both had bomb ass senses of style and so everything one of them bought was almost guaranteed to look good on the other. 

It was two weeks since Lup had once again become a corporeal being, and there was absolutely no other way that they were going to celebrate than an absolutely perfect double date. Barry and Kravitz were waiting down in the living room while the twins, who had been getting ready for over an hour already, finished touching themselves up.  Taako gave Lup a killer smokey eye and she fashioned his hair into an elegant updo that he would never have had the patience to do himself. They trusted each other more than a mirror, but still turned and posed and adjusted their reflections until each was completely satisfied with the fact that they were the two most attractive beings on the planet.

“I know we’re super gorgeous, like natch,” Taako said, letting Lup stick another pin into his hair to keep it in place, “but like, you look  _ super  _ good tonight, Lulu.  Barold’s gonna lose his entire fucking power of speech when he sees you.”

Lup winked.  “I do love to see that man blush, and lucky for me it’s super easy.”  And she purposefully swayed so that the skirt of her dress moved and, just for a moment, revealed the tops of her lace lace thigh highs, making the outfit about a billion times more sexy.

Oh yeah, Barry was gonna be losing his mind  _ all night. _

“Can Skull Rider blush?” she asked suddenly.

Taako shrugged and made a noncommittal noise.  “Sometimes. It seems to come and go; not really sure how it works yet.”

“Well, if he can he will when he sees you.  Or just grin like a dork, but he does that every time he looks at you.”

Taako swatted at her shoulder.  He had gone less for the “teasingly sexy” kind of look and skipped right to “I’m gorgeous and we both know you want me”.  His skirt was so form-fitting that bending over was off the table, and Taako knew that Kravitz had a thing for him in fishnet stockings so he was using that to its  _ fullest  _ potential.

Lup gave herself one final adjustment in the mirror, then lay her arm on Taako’s shoulder and surveyed their reflections.  “Damn, we  _ do  _ look good.”

Taako nodded.  “C’mon, let’s go save these losers from another minute of awkward conversation.”

“I dunno, last I heard they were debating the ethics of necromancy.  Maybe we shouldn’t interrupt them.”

“God.”  He resisted the urge to put his face in his hand for fear of ruining his makeup.  “How did we both come to date such  _ nerds?   _ It’s almost embarrassing!”

Lup hooked her arm in her brother’s and grinned.  “Let’s face it, babe; we have a type.”  As she said this t hey started out of the bedroom, then down the stairs towards their respective dates who were in fact,  _ still  _ debating the ethics of necromancy.  “Nerdy, more than a little obsessed with death, and absolutely smitten.”

Taako grinned and bumped their hips together.  “Only the best for us.”


End file.
